Alright, this is going to be a bit tl;dr but I need to address this situation.
Pokerstars just permanently locked my account. I will describe the facts that led to this below, along with a full communications-log of my emails back and forth with support. I know all of you here have read a lot of these topics, mostly ones in which the topicstarter did not give full disclosure of what happend and was in fact guilty. I am not. I'm going to present the facts below and I hope this topic leads to Pokerstars realising they made a mistake. There is simply no way someone at Stars can, from these facts, conclude that I did anything wrong, and I seriously wonder how and why the security agent came to his conclusion. Ok, here we go.
I have been a headsup player on Pokerstars for a long time. Yes, I am one of those 'bumhunters' that wait for heads up action on sites, Pokerstars is one of them. I sit on 1/2 up to 10/20. I have done so for years, which Pokerstars should be able to verify. I have played and won vs numerous unknown accounts.
At Jan 21th I recieved an email from
investigation@pokerstars.eu in my native language (so i'm going to summarize this for you) stating: your account is locked, you have been flagged, tell us whats your relationship to these accounts is and send in a passport-scan + proof of residence:
olgvomn
gorjigWC
mortatidis
bimdarg
Palyonmes
reximosa
Lanlingo
to which I replied: I'm a headsup player that got action from these accounts on 5/10 PLO and one on 10/20 PLO, i won vs all of them, it didn't seem like they played superbad, it just seemed like standard weak headsup players which i play all day every day. And I sent the passport-scan + proof of residence as requested.
So what happend: I just sat on headsup PLO tables as i've done for numerous days, waiting for action, got action from these accounts, played them, won money from them. The last account (I dont remember which) even hitran me, joined to others on 10/20 PLO that sat out, joined me on 10/20 PLO again, after which I won his money. I did not know these accounts. I have no relationship with said accounts. None. These accounts were just randoms that I play every day.
After my reply on Jan 24th I have not heard a single thing from
investigations@pokerstars.eu anymore. They did not confirm they recieved the documents requested, they didn't tell me a timeframe, nothing. They just ceased communication althogether. I have sent 4 emails as replies to their original email asking for a timeframe or ANY sort of update, but nothing.
On Jan 29th I send an email to
support@pokerstars.eu:
Quote:
> Hi,
>
> my account is currently frozen because of (I think) someone that has
> possibly hacked some accounts, played me headsup, and lost money to me.
> I have sent this explaination to investigations@pokerstars.eu, along
> with the documents requested. It's been 5 days now, I haven't gotten a
> confirmation email about recieving the explaination+documents, nor have
> I been given a time frame in which my account will be reopened.
>
> I understand Stars has to have these kinda security in place, but having
> done nothing wrong, it seems really unfair for my account to have been
> frozen for over 5 days now without ANY notice of recieving the documents
> requested or at least giving me a time frame.
>
> I am not a 10NL player, I expect Stars to treat me accordingly, having
> played on Stars for over 5 years, not having any violations to my name
> and having played a lot of headsup PLO and NLHE from 2/4 up to 10/20.
> Communication is key here, so please get back to me soon, i'm missing
> out on the entire TCOOP this way which i REALLY looked forward to playing.
>
> Regards,
>
> xxx
They replied on Jan 31th:
Quote:
Hello xxx,
Thank you for your email.
We can understand that this is frustrating for you and that you would like further information. However, we as support are not able to assist you with this matter. As you already seem to know, this matter is not handled by us; we are not aware of the situation itself, neither of the procedures and policies that the responsible department manages.
The only thing we can do is forwarding your email to the responsible department and hope that they will respond as soon as possible. However, we would like to advise you that sending further emails may delay a response even more; the responsible department will have to review any received relevant emails before they can provide a response.
We are sorry we do not have any better news for you, but hope you understand our position. Thanks in advance for your continnued patience.
Regards,
Ivar
PokerStars Support Team
To which i replied on Jan 31th:
Quote:
Hi there,
Of course I understand, and i'm not trying to be rude. I just don't
understand why it a) has to take so long, given that i'm a pretty
highstakes professional player on Stars, and b) why the investigations
team still haven't sent me a reply confirming they recieved the
documents i sent them, along with how to proceed from there. Now for all
i know, they haven't even gotten them yet and my case is just in limbo
or something.
Being a professional pokerplayer, I partly depend on Stars for my
income. That income is now being taken away for almost a week because
someone presumably did something illegal and randomly chose me as the
guy to play headsup with and saddle me up with this problems. And still
I don't even know where my case is at right now and how long i'm going
to be locked out.
Again, I understand Stars has to have strong and strict security in
place, but the investigations-team is really lacking communication here.
I still haven't heard anything.
Regards,
xxx
It took
support@pokerstars.eu untill Feb 8th to send a reply to this:
Quote:
Hello xxx,
Thank your email.
The reasons why our responses take longer to reach you is because your case is being handled by one individual agent. This means that you get a personalized communication from the Agent in charge, but on the other hand, information and decisions about the case cannot be disclosed while the agent in charge is away or out of the office.
By doing this, we guarantee that the less people are involved, the less risk of getting counterproductive results we will have.Besides, the confidentiality of the case is maintained more effectively.
Due to this if the Agent in charge goes on a day off, you will not receive any updates on your case. In addition, it is important you keep in mind that we handle several cases at the same time and e-mails are responded in the same order they are received.
I just wanted to inform you of this so you understand the investigation and responses to your e-mails take time due to the nature of the case and not due to negligence.
Regards,
Diana
PokerStars Support Team
To which I replied on Feb 9th:
Quote:
Ok so the agent has been on holiday for two weeks? Because that's how long it has been now. Two weeks. For a quite simple case where one can
see within an hour that nothing strange happend during play. It's really
sickening that some random hacker (or well that's what i guess happend,
as security haven't been in contact with me for two weeks now) can cause
my, totally innocent, account to be frozen for two weeks and counting,
just by playing headsup poker again some accounts that didnt even play
terrible.
To which they replied on feb 9th:
Quote:
Hello xxx,
Thank you for your further email.
I understand your frustration in regards to this. I can confirm that your case is in the correct hands and that you should receive a response within the next few days, which has been confirmed by the agent handling your case.
I thank you for your further patience in this matter. Should you have any further questions in the meantime we will be more than happy to respond to these.
Kind regards,
Stina J
PokerStars Support
After that, communication ceased altogether. I asked Lee Jones via PM and email to look into this. He replied promptly on Feb 21th:
Quote:
Hi xxx-
I've spoken directly to the person who is personally handling your case. I am 100% persuaded that your case is being professionally and thoroughly handled. It hasn't fallen through the cracks but simply needs this amount of time for a fair and thorough investigation.
I expect you'll be hearing from our investigations people in the relatively near future; until then, I appreciate your patience and understanding.
Best regards,
Lee Jones
PokerStars Head of Poker Communications
To which I replied:
Quote:
Hi Lee,
the relatively near future, am i looking at days, weeks, months? I sincerely wonder how it could take someone a month to 'investigate' 200 hands of headsup play. Even if the accounts I played were hacked (which i still only assume as nobody told me anything yet), why do I, an innocent headsup player that has played nearly strictly headsup against a lot of different opponents for the last few years, need to be locked out of playing fo a month?
This means if you wanted to ban a certain reg from your games, you could just hire a hacker to play him on some accounts and you'd have gotten rid of him for a month which would greatly benefit your EV. Stars needs to change this policy. If there's a dispute about funds that have been won in a situation like this, just put that funds in a stars escrow untill the investigation is completed (which, again, should not take a month!) and let the regular player continue to do what he's always done, namely playing on the site and contributing rake.
I have no idea how high your position at pokerstars is, but while I want to thank you for looking into this, i'm still shocked at the way stars has handled and continues to handle my case. I'm also pretty sure i'm not going to see any compensation for the time i have been locked out of playing while being totally innocent, so essentially I have been robbed. And I can't state too strongly how utterly bad that feels.
Regards,
xxx
Still believing this should all be solved soon, I got the following email today:
Quote:
> Dear xxx,
>
> In line with our internal security processes we carry out periodic business risk assessments on randomly selected accounts.
>
> We regret to inform you that your account has not passed this recent screening process, which has resulted in the permanent closure of your account.
>
> As per our Terms of Services available at: http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/tos/ (...) ‘PokerStars retains authority over the issuing, maintenance, and closing of Users' accounts on the Site. The decision of PokerStars' management, as regards any aspect of a User's account, use of the Service, or dispute resolution, is final and shall not be open to review or appeal.
>
> Your account is open to allow you cashout the balance of your account. Once this is complete your account will be closed.
>
> We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Mark
> PokerStars Security Investigations Team
>
To which I just replied:
Quote:
Dear Investigations Team,
this can't be serious. You did not confiscate the funds I have won from the accounts you have asked about. So your investigation must have concluded that I won that money fair and square, which is in fact the case. I do not have a relationship with said accounts. I have also sent you the documents you requested.
So, can you please tell me what led to this conclusion? I have been a constumer of Pokerstars for a long time. I do not have any violations to my name. I have sat on headsup tables waiting for action as I've done for a long time. I got action vs unknown accounts. That's all there's to it. There is simply no reason to close my account.
So, please tell me what you concluded I have done wrong. I really, sincerely, can't think of anything.
Regards,
xxx
So, I am seriously shaking right now. The facts in this case are: I am a headsup player. I got action vs unknown accounts (that were possibly hacked, but there was and is no way for me to know if that's the case). I won from unknown accounts. I get banned. And yes, I know some of you, that have read a lot of these topics, probably think: Right, you just opened a headsup table and let a hacker chipdump to you. I did not. I have been a professional poker player for 6/7 years. I have played strictly headsup for the last 5 years. I have sat on Stars' headsup tables for a long time, played vs a lot of players.
Lastly, Stars did not even confiscate the funds I have won from alledged hacked accounts. My balance is exactly what it was after I last closed the client. So, this must mean they concluded I have won that money fair and square. Yet, they someone found a reason to ban my account forever. I simply can't think of ANY reason for them to do so.
So, if any of you guys have ANY sort of advice, who to contact, what to do, I'm open to any suggestions possible. I am innocent, I need Stars to look into this again and I need this resolved. Please help.